Chat room technology traditionally allows an individual situated at a personal computer to post brief text-oriented messages for communal viewing. Participants in a chat room enter text messages at a keyboard and receive text messages at a monitor. Participants in text chat sessions may communicate synchronously in live exchanges of short text postings or asynchronously, posting messages in their own time and at their own pace. Chat rooms provide virtual congregation spaces for individuals of similar age, location, special interest or other criteria to communicate about specific topics or themes. Chat rooms originally served participants' desire to meet and conduct social networking in safe anonymity. Chat rooms evolved into threaded text exchanges in which serious interaction on a topic is facilitated. The ability to read previous entries in a discussion thread and reply at one's own pace allows a participant to absorb and think about what has previously been posted and create a more thoughtful and measured response, enhancing the value of the interaction.